Chapter 181

Asher walked quietly beside me. We didn’t speak the entire way back to my dorm, but his steady presence was a comfort.

I’d almost forgotten what it was like to have someone care about me for the sake of caring.

Ever since our fight, I missed Asher desperately. What I would have given to be able to go back in time and change the way things ended between us.

But things happened as they did, there was no changing it. Moments like this, soft and stolen were all that were left for us.

When we reached the front of my dormitory, Asher paused.

“You should be safe from here,” he said.

“Yeah.” I wasn’t ready to be apart from him yet. I stood still, watching him.

He watched me right back.

His shoulders tensed. His hands twitched forward, but then stopped.

“Goodnight, Cynthia,” he said. A dismissal.

“Goodnight,” I said, forcing down my disappointment, and went into the building.

Only when I entered the safety of my room, did I realize that I hadn’t returned Asher’s sweatshirt.

On Monday morning, one of my professors passed out our daily quizzes. I’d noticed, after studying so much, that the quizzes were getting easier. I finished this one in record time and was the first to turn it in.

The professor graded it quickly as I stood at his desk. He didn’t make a single mark with his red pen. When he finished, he wrote 100 across the top and circled it.

He gave me a kind smile as he returned the graded quiz. “Nice job, Cynthia. See me after class.”

I nodded.

At the end of class, as the rest of the students filed out of the classroom, I returned to the professor’s desk. He had his gradebook open in front of him, his hands laced together on top of it.

“I have to commend you, Cynthia. I’ve seen such a vast improvement in your scores since the start of the year. I applaud you and commend your efforts.”

“Thank you, professor,” I said, smiling wide. I was proud of the work I’d done, and how much I’d already accomplished. I had much farther yet to go, but seeing any positive result was uplifting.

“Keep up the good work,” he said.

“I’m will, sir. I’m trying to work toward passing the transfer exam,” I admitted. “I won’t give up.”

“That’s wonderful, Cynthia! Keep working like this, and I believe you may pass. Hold on.” He reached down into his bag and shuffled with the many papers inside. He retrieved a few and passed them to me.

“What is this?” I asked.

“Extra study guides. They are usually for upper classmen, but they should prove beneficial for the exam.”

Gratitude filled me. “This is great! Thank you so much, professor.”

The professor returned my smile. “Thank me by passing that exam. I’d like to keep you as a student.”

I vowed that I would.

When I told Aimee and Nicole about my success, they insisted in taking me out to dinner to celebrate. We studied for a bit, then in the evening, donned our jackets and headed to one of the more popular restaurants in town.

Only Aimee had been there before and said the food was really good. The reviews said the seafood was to die for.

Since it was so popular, there was a line to enter, so we put our name down with the hostess and then waited in the lobby for our turn to be seated.

We’d only waited a few moments, when Nicole said suddenly, “Oh, no. Maybe we should go somewhere else.”

Aimee and I gave her mirroring confused looks. Nicole motioned her head toward the dining room where she had previously been looking.

“Look over there, but don’t be obvious.”

Aimee and I both looked.

In the center of the dining room, Joseph sat at the table beside a blonde girl. He had his arm around her and was whispering in her ear. They were both watching something on Joseph’s phone on the table.

His gaze lifted then, catching my eyes across the room.

“Too obvious!” Nicole whisper-yelled.

Aimee and I both quickly looked away.

“Crap,” Nicole said, glancing. “He’s coming over.”

“No way,” I said.

“We should leave,” Aimee suggested.

Nicole and I agreed.

We’d only turned toward the door, when Joseph’s voice called out, “Cynthia!”

Instantly I was torn between pretending I didn’t hear him or outright running away. My indecision gave him the time he needed to close the distance between us.

He came up beside me and clutched my arm, preventing my hasty retreat.

Nicole and Aimee stopped when I did. My dear friends, they weren’t going to leave me behind.

“I’ve been eager to talk to you, Cynthia,” Joseph said, voice poison honey at my ear.

“We have nothing to say to each other.” I tried to yank my arm from his grasp but he held firm.

“You don’t have to be this way, not with everything we have shared,” Joseph said, smirking. “Besides, I only want to talk about Asher.”

Asher was my weakness, and damn him, Joseph knew it.

“Cynthia,” Aimee said, a warning. I knew what she meant. Joseph couldn’t be trusted. It was distinctly possible that whatever he was going to say about Asher was a straight up lie.

But I still couldn’t walk away.

Since Asher and I had split up, and the chasm between us stretched wider, I worried about him. Every day was a struggle, not being able to hear about how his day went or what he was up to. I missed our frequent meals together.

The nutritionist and housekeeper he’d hired for me still regularly came to my room, but even they couldn’t provide much information about Asher, beyond the surface-level, “He seemed fine.”

So, even suspecting Joseph was disingenuous, I couldn’t stop myself from asking, “What about Asher?”

Joseph’s smirk took on a dangerous, sharp edge. “I heard he’s been getting into a lot of fights lately.”

I thought of Asher’s split knuckles, and of Lamar’s accusation.

But Asher himself had told me he hadn’t punched Lamar, so I had to believe that.

“You’re lying.”

He shrugged, like it didn’t matter to him one way or the other. “You think so? Then maybe you should take a look at this.”

He lifted his phone, and I noticed that a video was playing on the screen. It seemed like an argument of some kind, with raised voices and…

Wait.

I knew that figure. Tall and proud with his muscles tense as a taunt bowstring, Asher growled at the man yelling at him.

The yelling man… was Lamar.

I wished I could tell what they were saying, but the sound was tinny in the speakers. Everything sounded like an echoed mumble.

I snatched the phone from Joseph and held it closer. Aimee and Nicole crowded in around me.

“Isn’t that…?” Nicole said.

Aimee gasped.

I still couldn’t hear, but I kept my eyes on Asher as the camera jostled.

The person holding the camera was backing away from Asher. Everyone was, even Lamar.

Asher hunched his shoulders forward. His growl lowered, guttural. Animal.

He was about to shift!

“When did this happen?” I said. When Joseph didn’t answer right away, I glared at him. “Joseph!”

He looked very pleased with himself. “It’s streaming live right now.”

My stomach dropped. Right now?

Asher was about to shift into his wolf. He was totally losing control. He was about to fight Lamar.

But he’d promised me.

He’d promised and…

I had to get there!

I pushed forward and shoved Joseph’s phone into his chest.

“Where?” I demanded, with a growl of my own.

I thought Joseph might keep it a secret, or at least make it a game and stretch it out, but he answered easily, as if he wanted me to know.

“The quad in front of Asher’s dorm.”

I had no more time for him.

I rushed out the door, and I ran.